Megaloolithus

Megaloolithus is an oogenus of dinosaur egg. They are thought to have been laid by sauropod dinosaurs. They are known for having thick eggshells, at least 1.5 millimetres (0.059 in) thick, and the nearly spherical shape of the eggs. They are primarily found in India and Europe, but some specimens have been found in South America.

Megaloolithus

Hectonichus · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MegaloolithidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 93 million years on record.

The record covers at least 165.3 Mya to 72.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 168.6 Mya to 66 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 1 of 183 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 0 of 183 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous — about 2 of 183 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 180 of 183 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 183 occurrences171–167 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences167–164 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences139–135 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences135–132 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences132–128 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences92–89 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences89–85 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences85–82 Mya — about 4 occurrences82–78 Mya — about 7 occurrences78–75 Mya — about 7 occurrences75–71 Mya — about 33 occurrences71–68 Mya — about 90 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 38 occurrences165.3 Mya72.2 Mya171 Mya64 Mya

183 occurrences of Megaloolithus on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

183 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

22 formations

Lameta — 20.25°N, 79.10°ELameta — 23.17°N, 79.97°ELameta — 23.50°N, 81.56°ELameta — 23.06°N, 73.33°ELameta — 23.10°N, 73.38°ELameta — 22.99°N, 73.34°ELameta — 22.96°N, 74.22°ELameta — 22.95°N, 74.14°ELameta — 22.86°N, 73.34°ELameta — 22.13°N, 74.38°ELameta — 22.34°N, 74.79°ELameta — 23.09°N, 74.15°ELameta — 22.25°N, 74.61°ELameta — 22.14°N, 74.71°ELameta — 23.17°N, 74.12°ELameta — 20.53°N, 79.27°ELameta — 20.68°N, 79.27°ELameta — 20.86°N, 79.32°ELameta — 22.28°N, 74.60°ELameta — 21.42°N, 78.00°ELameta — 22.37°N, 74.72°ELameta — 22.35°N, 74.75°ELower Red Garumnian — 42.17°N, 1.24°ELower Red Garumnian — 42.17°N, 1.26°ELower Red Garumnian — 42.24°N, 1.78°ELower Red Garumnian — 42.23°N, 1.72°ELower Red Garumnian — 42.18°N, 1.85°EGrey Garumnian — 42.17°N, 1.24°EGrey Garumnian — 42.18°N, 1.79°EGrey Garumnian — 42.25°N, 0.97°EGrey Garumnian — 42.31°N, 0.66°EArgiles et Grès à Reptiles — 43.50°N, 5.53°EAnacleto — 37.88°S, 68.52°WAnacleto — 38.02°S, 68.50°WAnacleto — 38.09°S, 68.51°WAnacleto — 38.97°S, 68.05°WAllen — 39.43°S, 67.29°WAllen — 39.98°S, 66.65°WAllen — 40.06°S, 66.80°WAllen — 40.04°S, 66.81°WLa Posa — 42.11°N, 1.08°ELa Posa — 42.17°N, 0.90°ELa Posa — 42.17°N, 1.25°ELa Posa — 42.08°N, 0.80°EArén — 42.13°N, 1.09°EArén — 42.29°N, 1.60°EArén — 42.08°N, 0.80°EConques — 42.20°N, 1.77°EConques — 42.14°N, 0.98°EConques — 42.16°N, 1.06°WConques — 42.17°N, 1.89°EGrès à Reptiles — 43.35°N, 2.95°EGrès à Reptiles — 43.60°N, 6.11°EGrès à Reptiles — 43.34°N, 2.91°EFiguerola — 41.12°N, 1.01°EFiguerola — 42.00°N, 0.93°EMarnes Rouges Inférieures — 42.93°N, 2.26°ECalcaire de Rognac — 43.52°N, 5.66°EVillanueva de Huerva — 41.34°N, 1.04°WIrbzer — 33.13°N, 4.75°WMarnes Rouges de Roquelongue — 43.11°N, 2.83°EKallankurichchi — 11.12°N, 79.11°ESantibañez del Val — 41.89°N, 3.47°WRâul Mare — 45.58°N, 22.93°EVillalba de la Sierra — 40.28°N, 2.08°WLa Maçana — 41.98°N, 0.65°ETalarn — 42.16°N, 1.06°E

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The named rock units Megaloolithus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 52 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megaloolithus and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Megaloolithus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

190 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 142 sites for Megaloolithus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

38 references

Each of the 183 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 26 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Megaloolithus

Credit
Hectonichus
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Megaloolithus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.

MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegaloolithidae through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mikhailov 1991